Viscount

How to spell viscount

8 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce viscount

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does viscount mean?

1. nounA nobleman ranking below an earl or count and above a baron.

Viscount in a sentence

• The viscount inherited the family estate after his father died.

• Records show that the viscount held land across three counties.

Where does viscount come from?

Language of origin: French

This word comes from the Old French visconte, which in turn rests on the Medieval Latin vicecomes, meaning a deputy or stand-in for a count. That Latin form joins vice, meaning 'in the place of', to comes, which literally meant 'companion' and came to denote a 'count' or court official; so a vicecomes was originally an officer who acted on a count's behalf. English borrowed the word in the 1300s as a rank of nobility sitting between a baron and an earl, and in some periods it also named a sheriff or other royal deputy. The spelling kept its Latinate 's' from vice even though that letter fell silent in speech, which is exactly the trap: the word is pronounced 'VY-count' yet must still be written with the 's'. The same vice element survives in plain English words like 'vice-president' and 'viceroy', a useful reminder of why the silent letter belongs there.

How the word is built

• vis- (from Latin vice: in place of, deputy)
• count (a nobleman, from Latin comes: companion)